The authors of outdated instructions are apparently dead long ago and can't bring them down. This is causing a lot of problems for gentoo ps3 newcomers (yes, they got me too ). Anyway, feel free to ask questions here if you get stuck.

That's not a good excuse for keeping gentoo livecd and PS3 related documentation and in such a horrible shape

My guess is that there are quite a number of PS3 consoles around still capable of running linux. It was a relatively reasonably priced ppc/ppc64 hardware (various embedded boards are either very expensive or have pitiful performance and/or insufficient amount of RAM). So PS3 could be used by software developers for testing compatibility with big endian systems and other things. SPU cores are also kind of fun to play with. And it used to be able to run games as an additional bonus.

I expect that the support for PS3 in other linux distros may get rather bad very soon and the existing linux users will probably start moving to gentoo (which also happens to support alpha, ia64 and other weird hardware). So while the total number of PS3 linux users will most likely decrease over time, the number of PS3 gentoo linux users may actually increase. And as a result these new users need proper documentation.

PS. I have no intention of upgrading firmware on my PS3. And if I ever decide to get rid of it, I will try to pass it into good hands.

The authors of outdated instructions are apparently dead long ago and can't bring them down. This is causing a lot of problems for gentoo ps3 newcomers (yes, they got me too ). Anyway, feel free to ask questions here if you get stuck.

I followed the instructions - and it was so tiresome. When something goes wrong, it is pretty much "start from the beginning" again. They did not work for me. I tried various variants.

Are you running Gentoo on PS3 then? Then wouldn't it be very easy for you to post a stage4 tarball somewhere?
(Or is nobody running a stage4 anywhere?)

Then wouldn't it be very easy for you to post a stage4 tarball somewhere? (Or is nobody running a stage4 anywhere?)

What are you going to do with this stage4 tarball? I think generic ppc/ppc64 stage3 tarball has all the basic stuff. It only needs some simple tweaks to get SPU toolchain working if you are interested in programming SPU cores, but I suppose that you did not even get to this point?

Then wouldn't it be very easy for you to post a stage4 tarball somewhere? (Or is nobody running a stage4 anywhere?)

What are you going to do with this stage4 tarball? I think generic ppc/ppc64 stage3 tarball has all the basic stuff. It only needs some simple tweaks to get SPU toolchain working if you are interested in programming SPU cores, but I suppose that you did not even get to this point?

When is the last time you tried to get from livecd the last stage3 to a working current set?
To be honest, I cannot tell you exactly where it broke because I made so many attempts - it broke in just too many places to be feasible. Be it python breaking because of the old kernel, or be it a newer kernel causing other problems.
Also note because of version dependencies to intermediate versions that are not being emerged anymore you cannot simply "upgrade" from the old stage3.

When is the last time you tried to get from livecd the last stage3 to a working current set?

It was two or three years ago. Also I did a fresh install on an external usb hard drive to get more hard disk space maybe just half a year ago, it was easy (but did not use livecd for that).

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Let me as the other way around - Why wouldn't I want a recent stage4?

Because based on what you say, it is likely livecd and the old kernel causing problems for you. The only problem with your stage tarball is that it is too new. I don't see how even newer tarball is going to help.

I can try to experiment with the livecd a bit to check what is the current state.

edit: you can also come to irc.freenode.net #gentoo-powerpc and ask for some help

Tried to check what's up with the ps3 installation instructions today. Now that I had a look at it, the instructions about kernel compilation are not very good (the part stating that you will need to enable some options in menuconfig, without specifying precisely what is needed). After a few attempts, I still could not build a kernel without initrd so that it would boot properly. I myself always used genkernel for kernel compilation earlier.

The most important point is that gentoo works fine on playstation3. If it doesn't work for you, then you are just doing something wrong or using the wrong/incomplete instructions. Just don't give up. But realistically, a new ps3 livecd is needed.

2andigentoo: please provide some feedback regardless of whether you succeed or not.

Downloaded from http://ssvb.name/files/20101016-ps3 the ps3-kernel and stage3 files. downloaded the most recent version of petitboot (white, 3.2M) from geoff and installed on my PS3.
formated a 4M USB stick with ext4 and untared the files to the stick and installed it on the PS3. However petitboot didn't find the USB stick, only my old YDL 6.2 on the HD. Tried Ext3 instead with
same results. It seems that petitboot loads the USB drive last after the YDL on the HD. I found Gentoo in /tmp/petitboot/sda/

Yes, ext3 should work. Just /etc/fstab needs to be updated. Anyway, looks like it may be a good idea to try some different petitboot. All the attached devices should be detected (some of them a bit later than the others) and shown in the boot menu.

No it just says kexec fails. I untared the files in a YDL folder and tried" kexec -l kernel --initrd=initramfs* --append=video=ps3fb:mode3" but kexec could not determine the file type of kernel* So I suppose that is the problem.

Once I realized the stage 4 was useless and I was just using the LiveCD to boot, everything went real smooth. The one exception I did with the instructions above is that I changed the install to ppc64, not ~ppc64.

Here's one warning that maybe should be in BOLD RED in the instructions.

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WARNING: If you use an old LiveCD, do NOT perform any upgrade now. Wait until you have a recent kernel and booted it.Upgrading glibc will break python (and emerge is programmed in python).

If anyone is getting rid of their PS3, I know a lot of people that would love to have one that they can use for BOINC projects._________________Greg